The Photographer and his skeleton

I would venture to say that most photographers have a back problem. We apparently have not been designed to carry a heavy load of camera equipment dangling from our shoulders. When I was a lot younger than I am today, I thought nothing of lugging around three or four cameras, and their lenses. Sure I might have gotten tired, but other than that I never gave it too much thought, as to what I was doing to myself.

My father always had back problems himself, yet he never advised me to be aware of how I should carry all that weight around, there just was a general lack of information about the cause and effect of such behaviors.

The fact however, is that today we do know that carrying all that weight  around for years, will inevitably affect the discs between the vertebrae of ones’ spinal column. Nothing to say of the alignment of all those vertebrae.

My spinal column looks on an X-ray like a question mark, the result of a complete disregard for how I  managed the weights I would continuously dangle either from my shoulders or my neck.

My idea of writing about this is because I am sure that there are a lot of good ideas of how to cope with these issues. So let us hear from you, and share your experiences and solutions above all.

Pedro Meyer